It’s the ultimate roll-the-ball-out and play sport. After all, how much instruction does it take to hit a ball over a net?

As a matter of fact, the best players in the world seek advice from Liz Masakayan. So many, in fact, she can’t keep track.

It was early in her career in beach volleyball, when she was on the way to 47 tournament titles, that the value of coaching hit her.

In beach volleyball, where so many of the players are self-taught, the importance of a voice of experience has caught on big-time.

Masakayan, the former UCLA star, had Mary Jo Peppler to turn to.

“I had to figure it out the hard way,” Masakayan said. “One day I came to practice when May Jo started coaching me. I was such a robot because of what you do indoors. She said to me, `What would you like to work on, what do you think you could take from last week’s tournament?’

“Stumped me. I felt like such an idiot, but I was trained to be an idiot. Ever since then, that was just a huge enlightenment. I would never want to be coached like (a robot) again.”

Masakayan went on to coach Elaine Youngs and whatever partner Youngs had. Then, she graduated to more of a trainer role, where she can dole out advice to players instead of simple strategy in a team sense.

Now, coaches are in high demand.

Four years ago, Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal looked at each other and made the decision to take the plunge. This from a team that included Gibb, a former MVP of the AVP tour, and Rosenthal, the rising star who opted not to play indoors at Redondo High, choosing instead to hone his skills on the beach.

“They said, `We want you to be our coach. It was really sweet,” said Mike Dodd, who won 75 events. “They sent me a contract, a monthly salary and expenses and all this stuff.

“I said, `Hey, wait a minute – why don’t we meet at the beach and see how we all get along and go from there?’ We met that day and started practicing together. I can honestly say I love them both somewhere between younger brothers and a son. They’re a joy to work with.”

Especially on July 19, when their work resulted with the tour’s biggest prize, the Manhattan Beach Open championship.

Dodd won Manhattan six times, and earlier in the day, he was wondering if his charges actually realized that it remains the chance of a lifetime, and the pep talk sparked them out of their doldrums.

Afterward, Gibb and Rosenthal were quick to point to Dodd for their success.

And so did Youngs and Nicole Branagh, Dodd’s other team that also brought home a Manhattan title that day.

“Oh boy, that was one of the best days ever of my volleyball life,” Dodd said. “I was unbelievably happy for Nicole because that was her first time get her name on the pier. Maybe even more so with Sean because I had been with him longer, he’d grown up in this area and I knew how badly he wanted it and how frustrated and disappointed he had been in the past.”

Whiles coaches are becoming more in demand, their role is limited by rules.

Even though they sit with the players during a match, They can only talk with them at the 21-point side switch or during a timeout. They can’t talk to the players while they are in action, and they especially can’t talk to the referees.

Can you imagine a college basketball coach with those restraints?

“Still, coaches aren’t part of the game yet,” Dodd said. “They’re just part of the teams that they coach. You help at practice, look at film, but as far as being able to coach during a game like Phil Jackson or (Pepperdine and former U.S. Olympic coach) Marv Dunphy, we’re not part of that scene.”

Neither is money. Despite her many clients, Masakayan isn’t about to turn it into a life-changing gig. Instead of strategy in terms of devising game plans, she will work with merely what that team needs to work on. Either that or with all of her clients, she would be coaching against herself.

“It becomes a little tricky,” she admitted with a laugh.

Because of the travel involved with coaching one team, Masakayan is content to keep her responsibilities where they are – happily married at home where players can come to her.

No matter how hard they might try to talk her into a gig.

“I’ve actually sat Liz down and begged her to be our exclusive coach,” said Brittany Hochevar, who is playing this season with Jennifer Fopma. “I kind of asked her to put a price tag on it, `Liz you name your price.’ I’m willing to go there because her information is so valuable. But she’s in a different place in her life now and I respect that.”